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Retrospective: Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man (1943)

24 Tuesday Nov 2020

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Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man marks a significant moment for Universal Pictures as it was the first instance that the production company introduced an ensemble of monsters in a single feature.
This film would initiate the birth of the classic horror universe and would pit two of its iconic creatures, Frankenstein’s monster and The Wolf Man against one another. 

Clearly aware that Universal had a hot property on their hands and the chance to ride on their previous successes, a strong cast would be required and they didn’t fail to deliver.
Reprising his role of Larry Talbot would be Lon Chaney Jr., and accompanying him would be Maria Ouspenskaya (The Wolf Man) as the gypsy woman Maleva, Lionel Atwill (The Atomic Monster) as the Mayor, Ilona Massey (Invisible Agent) as Baroness Elsa Frankenstein, Patric Knowles (The Strange Case of Dr. Rx) as Dr. Mannering, and Dwight Frye (Dracula) as Rudi in his last credited role in feature film.

Interestingly Bela Lugosi was cast as Frankenstein’s Monster, a role he was initially cast to play in Universal’s 1931 feature but turned it down.
Here at the age of 60, Lugosi would try to inject some of the character’s previous personality as imbued from Ygor’s brain swap from The Ghost of Frankenstein.
These characteristics included a paralysis of his arm, blindness, and the ability to talk.
The latter however was cut from the final film as people found the notion of The Monster speaking in a deep Hungarian accent too humorous.
Lugosi’s suppressed efforts didn’t end there as scenes were cut, especially any reference to the Monster’s blindness as it was deemed too confusing. The result saw Lugosi’s actual screen time reduced significantly and the feature feels more like a sequel to The Wolf Man than it does as a continuation in the Frankenstein saga. 

The positive outcome to this is that Larry Talbot’s story and plight is one worth telling, reawakened when grave robbers remove the wolfbane from his coffin during a full moon.
(These moments of reanimation would become more far-fetched throughout the Classic Monsters universe but somehow part of its charm too).
Here, Talbot is doomed to walk the earth in his hairy transformation whenever the moon is full until he can end his life.
When Talbot learns of Frankenstein’s experiments, he believes this may be the answer to his prayers.

So, the first half of the feature plays out Talbot’s resurrection, turmoil, and recovery at Dr Mannering’s hospital, while the latter half sees him travel to the village of Vasaria, where he would encounter Frankenstein’s descendant Elsa.

The heart of the film is ultimately what connects us to the narrative, but unfortunately the final showdown between the two iconic monsters was something of a let down and an opportunity was squandered when they clashed at the ruins of Frankenstein’s castle. 

Despite this weak ending the film does still entertain, but this is primarily down to its strong cast and able screenwriting from Curt Siodmak.

Frankenstein’s monster and The Wolf Man would not reanimate again until 1944’s House of Frankenstein in something of a support role.

  • Saul Muerte

Retrospective: The Mystery of Marie Roget (1942)

12 Saturday Sep 2020

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Based on a short Edgar Allan Poe story and often touted as a sequel to The Murders in the Rue Morgue, Universal would produce this film noir mystery during the early forties. Directed by Phil Rosen, a man who would end up with over 140 films to his credits as a director. 

Patric Knowles (The Strange Case of Doctor Rx) returns once again for the production giant cutting a fine figure as an amateur sleuth, Paul Dupin.
Dupin is hired for his medical know-how to identify a female corpse that has been found, her face mutilated beyond recognition.
There are suspicions that it may be the infamous Marie Roget, a notorious musical comedy star who has been missing for the past 10 days.
This all falls south, however, as Marie suddenly reappears, without a thought nor care for those worried about her absence and throwing further mystery around the identity of the corpse.

A lot of this film is convoluted and shrouded in confusion, a mask that it relies upon to hide the obvious killer from the audience, especially as it never clearly labels any other notable suspects into the mix. 

There is a subtle sub plot beneath the surface insinuating a possible romantic interest between Dupin and Marie’s sister Camille, but this is often swept aside by the need to amp up the thriller aspect.

It is only when Marie disappears again, quickly followed by another disfigured corpse that things begin to get more sinister and with a modern filmmaker’s gaze could really switch things in an incredibly dark direction, but the forties were a very different era.

Knowles feels more in his comfort zone this time around carrying a weight of confidence in his methods that leaves one thinking at least someone knows where the plot line is going.

The film has a lot of premise, but unfortunately it all gets lost in creating an atmosphere embedded once again between a murder mystery, and screwball comedy that it never quite hits the mark in either of these areas. 

It does still have a decent underlining, which feels like it warrants another look today as a remake with the right director attached. 

  • Saul Muerte

Retrospective: The Strange Case of Doctor Rx

06 Sunday Sep 2020

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The Strange Case of Doctor Rx is a curious oddity indeed as Universal once again struggles to fire a hit outside of the ‘classic’ monster films that they had become synonymous with. Described as a B Movie murder mystery horror, this film crunches and clunks its way through numerous genre changes in gear that it never really hits its stride. Some elements lay sway to the screwball comedies of the era, but freezes more than sizzles with its dialogue. 

With Patric Knowles handed a top billing role (following his support performance in The Wolf Man) as Private Investigator Jerry Church, hired to investigate a series of murders by someone who labels himself as Rx. What is bizarre about the narrative is that it picks up after five murders have already occured which feels like a missed opportunity to build up the suspense.

Church is indeed a hot shot investigator who is at odds with his desire to do what he does best and settle down with his new wife Kit (one of the original scream queens Anne Gwynne). He is ultimately drawn into the mystery however as we too are struggling to comprehend what is actually going on. 

The comedy moments aren’t enough either to lift the audience out of the confusion and fall flat, coming across as befuddling rather than bemusing. 

By the film’s conclusion the script somehow manages to side step a suitable conclusion with Church placed in a dire situation without showing how he is able to escape his plight. It then wrangles a conclusion that is just as perplexing as its premise, leaving me to wonder what I had just watched.

It’s one silver screen lining is the red herring element with the great Lionel Atwill lurking mysteriously in the shadows (Man-Made Monster, The Mad Doctor of Market Street). If only his presence was felt more strongly throughout the movie. It’s absence of mystery is heavily felt and with more work on the screenplay, Universal could have had a very different film on the hands. Missed opportunity.

  • Saul Muerte

Retrospective: The Wolf Man (1941)

08 Saturday Aug 2020

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The introduction of The Wolf Man would mark the last of the iconic stable monsters to come out of Universal studios during its golden age of horror. Along with it comes arguably one of the production houses’ most tragic characters in Larry Talbot. Talbot’s heartfelt sorrow is all the more pained due to his magnificent portrayal by Lon Chaney Jr, who after impressing in Man-Made Monster finally got to take on a lead-role as the doomed hero. 

In many ways the feature would serve as a signature to the passing of the torch from the old to the new with Chaney Jr ably supported by Claude Rains (The Invisible Man) as Larry’s father Sir John, and Bela Lugosi (Dracula) as Bela the Gypsy. The latter is all the more on the snout as Bela harbours the secret of being a lycanthrope and literally bites Talbot, transforming him and turning him into the monster. 

The strength of the cast doesn’t end there though, and this is part of the beauty of this film and why quite honestly, it still resonates today. With Ralph Bellamy (Rosemary’s Baby), Patric Knowles (Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man), Evelyn Ankers (The Ghost of Frankenstein), but none more striking than Maria Ouspenskaya as Maleva, The Gypsy Fortune Teller.
Her role would lend significant weight and drama to Talbot’s plight and add a dash of the mysticism behind the mythology. She would reprise her role once more in Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man. 

Curt Siodmak would return once more as the screenwriter, in arguably his finest work, which is partly to do with him drawing from his own tragic history of segregation and oppressed Jew under the Nazi regime, a topic that doesn’t get lost in the narrative as Bela and Larry are both marked by the pentagram as part of their curse.

In this story, Talbot returns to his ancestral home to reunite with his estranged father.
Whilst there, he becomes infatuated with a local girl, Gwen, only to succumb to a wolf attack.
At first, Talbot believes that his plight is all too real, but when he heals so swiftly, he starts to question his own sanity, before the physical changes begin to occur.
From here, he withdraws from the world, not knowing who to turn to, afraid of what he might do.

Now that mythology is the stuff of legend, and many have transpired to go above and beyond where it all began with numerous tales of the shapeshifting beast.
The effects have come in leaps and bounds since this film, but a huge nod must go out to make up guru Jack Pierce who would produce the now infamous look from his own personal kit, including yak hair that was glued to Chaney Jr’s face in a laborious procedure.
The Wolf Man would go on to feature in a further four sequels, all featuring Chaney Jr (the only actor to play the role), which is part of its appeal, and one of the key characteristics of Talbot is his ‘nice guy’ personality that is conflicted with this plague. 

The film is iconic and despite being nearly 80 years old, is still solid.
A testament to the talent involved in its creation and Siodmak’s screenplay. As my journey through the Universal horror archive, this was a welcome shift in the positive direction.

  • Saul Muerte